The Tale of Solomon Owl eBook

But Benjamin Bat never cared to have anything more
to do with Solomon Owl.

He said he had a good reason for avoiding him.

And ever afterward he passed for a very brave person
among his friends. They often pointed him out
to strangers, saying, “There’s Benjamin
Bat! He doesn’t know what fear is.
Why, once he even spent a whole day asleep in Solomon
Owl’s house! And if you don’t think
that was a bold thing to do, then I guess you
don’t know Solomon Owl.”

XV
Disputes Settled

Solomon Owl looked so wise that many of his neighbors
fell into the habit of going to him for advice.
If two of the forest folk chanced to have a dispute
which they could not settle between them they frequently
visited Solomon and asked him to decide which was
in the right. And in the course of time Solomon
became known far and wide for his ability to patch
up a quarrel.

At last Jimmy Rabbit stopped Solomon Owl one night
and suggested that he hang a sign outside his house,
so that there shouldn’t be anybody in the whole
valley that wouldn’t know what to do in case
he found himself in an argument.

Solomon decided on the spot that Jimmy Rabbit’s
idea was a good one. So he hurried home and before
morning he had his sign made, and put out where everyone
could see it. It looked like this:

DISPUTES SETTLED WITHIN

There was only one objection to the sign. As
soon as Jimmy Rabbit saw it he told Solomon that it
should have said:

DISPUTES SETTLED WITHOUT

“Without what?” Solomon Owl inquired.

“Why, without going into your house!”
said Jimmy Rabbit. “I can’t climb
a tree, you know. And neither can Tommy Fox.
We might have a dispute to-night; and how could you
ever settle it?”

“Oh, I shall be willing to step outside,”
Solomon told him. And he refused to change the
sign, declaring that he liked it just as it was.

Now, there was only one trouble with Solomon Owl’s
settling of disputes. Many of the forest folk
wanted to see him in the daytime. And night
was the only time he was willing to see them.
But he heard so many objections to that arrangement
that in the end Solomon agreed to meet people at dusk
and at dawn, when it was neither very dark nor very
light. On the whole he found that way very satisfactory,
because there was just enough light at dusk and at
dawn to make him blink. And when Solomon blinked
he looked even wiser than ever.

Well, the first disputing pair that came to Solomon’s
tree after he hung out his new sign were old Mr. Crow
and Jasper Jay. They reached the hemlock grove
soon after sunset and squalled loudly for Solomon.
“Hurry!” Mr. Crow cried, as soon as Solomon
Owl stepped outside his door. “It will
be dark before we know it; and it’s almost our
bedtime.”